I've run a cheap 40gb Intel SSD for 2 years with no issues. I've converted that same drive over to a windows machine which is now running pfsense virtual on vmware and there are still no issues. I'm guessing a large part is due to the size. The larger the SSD the more spare to have as reserve, the and less chance all the memory will be written over too many times to wear it out. SSD drives are getting cheaper all the time. I originally only did it as the mechanical drive was noisy, as the ssd made the machine quiet. The windows machine was more important, as I wanted a quick windows/virtual pfsense boot time. Virtual also gave me easier backup/restore ability.

I assume it prevents an OS from writing to the same spot over an over. Is this correct?

It doesnt prevent the OS from anything, the SSD's internal controller re-maps the physical memory address of the cells continuously in a manner that all the cells are actually being re-written all the time, even when the OS doesn't write anything to the disk. The OS actually doesn't even notice what's happening in the background, it's all done in hardware. See about static wear levelling.

For testing I was using these cheap kingston SSDs and yeah they died pretty quick. Reading online they have lots of issues anyways so I just wanted to be sure. Transcend chips have been very reliable in the past I used the DOM IDE ones with monowall for years.